1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to performing storage device maintenance operations and more particularly relates to a local management module performing maintenance operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer storage system typically includes a plurality of storage devices such as hard disk drives, magnetic tape drives, optical storage drives, and the like. Each storage device is usually in communication through a communication channel with a control device wherein referred to as an adapter module. The adapter module communicates with one or more host systems. In addition, the adapter module controls and arbitrates access by a host system to a storage device.
For example, the host system may communicate a request to retrieve data from the storage device to the adapter module. The adapter module may then direct the storage device to communicate the desired data to the adapter module, and the adapter module communicates the data to host system. Similarly, the host system may communicate data to the adapter module for storage on the storage device. The adapter module directs the storage device to receive the data and store the data in a specified location.
The adapter module typically also performs maintenance operations on the storage device. For example, the adapter module may perform a health check maintenance operation on the storage device to verify that the storage device is functioning normally. Alternatively, the adapter module may perform an initialization operation on the storage device such as when the storage device is added to an array of storage devices.
The adapter module typically controls a plurality of storage devices. For example, the adapter module may control a plurality of hard disk drives comprising a redundant array of independent drives (“RAID”). While controlling the plurality of storage devices, the adapter module may simultaneously access one or more storage devices for a host system and perform maintenance operations on one or more storage devices. Unfortunately, the adapter module may lack the processing bandwidth to both access and control the storage devices and to perform maintenance operations. In addition, it may be desirable to further improve the communication channel's performance during maintenance operations.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an apparatus, system, and method that locally performs a storage device maintenance operation. Beneficially, such an apparatus, system, and method would increase access to storage device data while the maintenance operation is performed.